


little jade rabbit

by theflyjar



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Alternate Universe - Prehistoric, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Blood Drinking, Blood Magic, Grave Robbers, M/M, Mages, Mild Blood, Prehistoric, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 11:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13546470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theflyjar/pseuds/theflyjar
Summary: He always knew him as Yifan in previous lives.





	little jade rabbit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [khrysallis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/khrysallis/gifts).



> First of all, I'm so sorry this was late!! I don't know where the time went. But, I hope you had a good december/christmas.
> 
> Secondly, I couldn't pick one prompt, so I combined them? I hope you don't mind. This is also unedited, right now, but I will come back to edit tomorrow.
> 
> Lastly, I hope you enjoy this!

Visions of times gone by always came to Yixing first when he was a child. They were dreams that were littered with true feelings, ones he couldn't comprehend or consider as a small boy. Yet, as he grew and those truths in those visions rang clearly, he knew they were lives he'd lived. Always with different parents. Always with different friends. Always in new cities or countries. Always with Yifan.

He always knew him as Yifan in previous lives. It meant Yixing could find him in each life over, to put someone in the golden space in Yixing's heart. In some lives, they couldn’t ever be more than small moments in the other’s life. In most others, they were lovers. They were people who sought out love and found it in each other, and Yixing always knew that, it was why he searched for Yifan wherever he could. And, he would always be excited when he'd realise that he would meet a soulmate of sorts in his lifetime until the reality of it all sunk in.

Yifan's eyes would always be empty when he first looked at Yixing each cycle they met anew in. He knew nothing of Yixing and their numerous entwined pasts, he only knew the present they were both in. He didn't dream of chasing Yixing along the Seine. He didn't dream of letting Yixing kiss him against trees in autumn forests. He didn't dream of all those mornings they'd wake up together with sunlight dancing around them. Yifan was never haunted by anything.

Yixing was plagued by it all - the memories of kisses shared in secret, the fear of running away together, the warm confidence he would have when Yifan was his closest companion. There was no escaping it. Not when everything played on an endless movie reel each time his eyes closed.

 

~

 

_1905._

Yixing could remember the beauty and grace of the prince as he slipped in through one of the cracked walls of the tomb. He ran his fingers down the walls to trace the patterns and inscriptions, his thumbs felt the divots that split the texts and told tales of the crowned prince and his nameless lover. And how the lover had been struck by an illness, one that ravaged through his blood until even the smallest incisions would not heal. Yixing had read the entire thing once and learnt of how desperately lonely the prince had become at the untimely death of his favoured lover. The story detailed it all, from the first time they had shared air to the last time they would each breathe.

Yixing drifted through the mausoleum with light feet, barely an echo coming from his footsteps until he found the large, jade-fronted coffin, the one with the inscription of the prince’s name.

“I still haven’t found you,” he said, sighing. He pushed the heavy cover aside with the use of all his strength. “You’re too tricky to find in this life. There’s so many more people, so many faces that aren’t yours.”

He looked down at the bones and grinned when he saw, not one skull, but two.

“It’s a shock, really, that they let you put our bodies together. In one crypt, too. Especially given that your empress is several hundred metres away, buried in a modest mound with all your other consorts.” He picked out one of the skulls, the one that was slightly narrower than the other in the chin. Yixing held it up at eye height and smiled. “We’ve given historians a bit of a shock, haven’t we, Love? They all know I was _–am–_ a man, but they cannot find a single piece of evidence that it was _me_.”

He sat with his back to the coffin and cradled the bone in his hands. “I’m happy that I’m with you here, though. It does carry some weight to our love, doesn’t it? That, I, a sheep farmer’s son, could have dug my way under your skin and into your heart enough to be laid to rest here.”

“But, of course, I say this in every lifetime, don’t I? I lament and pine to find you and do the very same in each existence we go through.” Yixing’s brought the flat plane of the forehead to his mouth and kissed it once. “I do miss you, though, more each day, my emperor - the ruler of my soul.”

The skull was so much smoother than the flesh he used to kiss - far colder, too. Yet, Yixing wished for the flesh of a warm forehead that crinkled under the press of his mouth. He missed his prince, so very dearly, and couldn’t wait to find him again in that lifetime.

Yixing pulled the skull away from his lips and sighed, “Now, did you keep your promise? Did you keep my pendant with you? I’ll be pretty upset if you didn’t.”

He put the skull back into the coffin and scoured amongst the bones and other artefacts for the leather band that was tethered to a small jade figure. Yixing felt his heart drop down to his stomach when he rummaged and couldn’t find it, even moving his own bones to find the necklace.

When he spied the dark green, he laughed, so much his hands trembled as he reached up through the Prince’s ribcage and caught hold of the brown leather band. He curled his fingers around it and managed to feel a semblance of a past that had once been a comfort to him.

Yixing stared for a long time. Until his eyes went dry and, the light of his lamp shone towards his face, hurt his pupils, meaning he had to look away. He resigned himself to being caught easily and quickly, only holding onto the necklace as tightly as he could in his fist. The jade of the rabbit dug into his palm and he simply breathed.

Fate always had a plan for him.

Always.

In fact, he always laughed aloud when the glow of the lamp was lowered from his face and his eyes could focus, in the dim light, on the person holding it. It was comical how things worked out, how life unfolded in front of him.  
And, a smile spread across his mouth.

“Whatever you’ve taken, thief, return it,” he was told. His whole body shivered when he heard that voice, one that had escaped him in so long. The goosebumps that rose up on his skin prickled so much that it almost hurt. It had been too long.

 

~

 

_2018._

Yifan stands at the coffee maker, nothing but basketball shorts on his hips and Yixing can feel himself smiling as he leans against the doorframe. There’s the clear sign of a small brown band around Yifan’s neck, that keeps a rabbit shaped gem close to Yifan’s heart. A warmth spreads through Yixing from his own heart, alleviating the small anxieties about living that drift through Yixing’s head every morning. It also soothes Yixing to see the soft skin of Yifan’s back, shoulders broader than average and his sides soft with flesh.

Yifan had been skinnier when they had first met, his hips a little pointed and his collarbone joints prominent on his shoulders. Yixing enjoys feeding Yifan up, teaching him how to cook and making sure he stays healthy.

Yixing spoils Yifan. He spoils him because he’s the one that knows the pains of their pasts.

 

~

 

_1905._

Another person arrived and Yixing was the one to startle, too taken aback by the appearance of Yifan’s partner that he can barely stop himself from falling backwards. More people came, more police officers that Yixing couldn’t quite discern in the darkness. The tether of the necklace fell between his fingers and Yixing knew that it had been seen, given that calls for him to return it to the dead emperor’s body echoed through the chamber.

Yixing only held the rabbit figure tighter in his hands, letting his knuckles turn white as more people approached him.

He kept his eyes on Yifan, though. All of his focus on the tall officer that shone the shine of a lamp on him. Yixing took a deep breath in and relaxed his shoulders just as hands clasped around his elbows. He went willingly but did not relinquish the pendant, not when he was threatened, not when he was hit over the head by multiple officers. His eyes were trained on Yifan’s, hoping and wishing that maybe Yifan would recognise him in this lifetime.

He knew his boundless hope was futile when Yifan looked away so easily, preferring to walk back up and out of the tomb and giving Yixing no more than an emotionless blink.

Yixing had no more sight of Yifan as he was handcuffed and the pendant was ripped from his hands, so much so that a jagged edge of the jade had torn through his skin on three of his fingers.

He searched for Yifan when they came to the station, his eyes flew around the bustling floor of the booking room and found nothing. He was taken to a cell where a doctor was waiting for him, antiseptic, gauze, and bandages in his grasp. His hand was cleaned up quickly, especially when he noted that he had issues with healing. He was given a cold, wet cloth for the bruises on his cheek before he was left alone.

 

~

 

_500 A.D._

Yixing could feel Yifan watch him as he pecked at the chunk of jade with the tip of his knife, he smiled and looked around at him. The sulphur orange cast of the light glimmered off Yifan’s eyes as he looked at, and into, Yixing.

“I thought you’d leave it as it is?” Yifan asked him suddenly. “The colour was pretty.”

The smile Yixing did was instinctive as Yifan crawled to his side, his head hooked over Yixing’s shoulder and ran his hand up Yixing’s arm until he caught hold of the knife.

There was a tiny shake in Yixing’s voice as he said, “It’ll still be a pretty colour when I am finished with it.”

Yixing’s knife keeps going into the rock and he sighs whenever he looks at it.

“What’s it supposed to be?”

Yixing gnaws on his lower lip, unsure of how to answer, the words tentative in his throat. He hadn’t ever been much good at carving, he’d simply wanted to make a pendant for Yifan to mark their eighth moon together. He didn’t want Yifan to hate it. Nor did he want Yifan to laugh at it.

“A dragon,” he said after a couple of pokes from Yifan into his side. “To bring us luck in the fields. For you to wear.”

Yifan didn’t even snicker, he took the figure from Yixing and held it up to the firelight and happiness cast onto his face.

“It looks more like a rabbit,” Yifan commented offhandedly as he rolled a thin leather string through it. “It looks like you.”

“I can make you another, if you want, something better.”

Yifan gave Yixing a look that made his heart stop almost entirely in his chest, “No dragon can bring me the luck that you can. I’ll wear it in every life we have together.”

 

~

 

_1905._

Yixing was put into a room that had a wooden table and two chairs in it. It was a damp box of a space. Water dripped down from the ceiling and dribbled down the walls, all cloyed up with the scent of wet rotting leaves. Autumn hadn’t fared the police station all that well, especially given that it was one so far out from the city. They were the ones who dealt with those who looted from the tombs of the dead dynasty leaders.

And, the police thought Yixing was one of those who wished to steal from the bodies of the dead to sell on in undocumented markets. Yixing couldn’t even be too angry with them, either. They weren’t to know that Yixing was technically reclaiming something from himself - and his lover.

Yifan sat opposite him, who stared at him thoughtfully before he put the necklace from the tomb on the table between them. There was a small notepad and pencil beside it, ready for details to be jotted down into it and Yixing waited patiently. No question was asked, he was given a short, meaningful stare that was accompanied by the flick up of an eyebrow.

It took everything in Yixing’s body to bite his cheeks and refrain from smiling because the action was so inexplicably _Yifan_ that his very chest burst with a feeling that had been so long gone. Like he did in every lifetime, Yixing spiralled into the initial rushing, world-spinning stages of love.

Instead of answering Yifan’s silently posed question, Yixing whispered something that stunned the police officer into losing some of his confident sheen.

“You’re going to fall in love with me.”

“Your name?” Was all he was asked after that, his comment totally ignored by the officer.

Yixing smiled. He still knew how to unnerve Yifan, a simmer of satisfaction ran through Yixing’s veins as he realised that. It had been _too long_ since he had been able to look into his lover’s eyes and he could not stop staring.

“Zhang Yixing,” Yixing supplied and he watched as Yifan scribbled it down on the next blank page. “My papers are in my pocket.”

His writing was still terrible, barely legible, and Yixing wondered if that was something that would ever change. It was quiet enough in the room for the pencil to make small scratching sounds between the small splashes from the drips in the edges of the room. Yixing leant even further forward and rested his chin on his palm that wasn’t bandaged.

“Can you pass them over to me?”

Yixing dug his injured hand into his pocket and plucked out the bundle of worn documents, which he passed over to the detective without much complaint. Yifan flicked through them and filled in the rest of information that he needed from Yixing without talking much more to him. Yixing almost wished he hadn’t been so helpful, he wanted to be able to sit and talk with Yifan for longer. Though, he knows their volleying of questions and answers will start up again, given that Yixing is being interviewed for a crime he cannot refute his involvement in.

“Why were you in the tomb?”

“I was in there to retrieve the jade necklace, the one from the emperor’s coffin,” Yixing explained and Yifan’s fingers hovered as he wrote more into the notebook.

“So, you aren’t going to try and claim innocence?”

Yixing smiled and turned his head away from the hand he was propped up on, “You caught me red-handed, Detective.”

“Do you realise who that necklace belonged to?”

“Come on, Detective, I’m sure you have better questions than this. What kind of interrogation is this supposed to be?”

“Can you please give me answers to what I ask you, Mr Zhang? I don’t have the time to sit here and go back and forth about this.”

“Really? Because, in reality, you would be doing other things than dealing with a petty thief, if you had better things to do, that is.” Yixing observed how Yifan’s hand tightened around the pencil he had between his fingers and Yixing couldn’t resist saying more. All he wanted was to have all Yifan’s attention on him. “And that necklace belongs to me.”

“This isn’t a game of finders keepers, Mr Zhang… Who does that necklace belong to?”

“Me.” Yixing was not teasing as he spoke, he was strained with seriousness and made sure to

“Do you know how much this could be worth if it hit the right markets?”

“No, because I haven’t looked into anything like that. The necklace is priceless to me and I would do anything - including raiding the tomb of a deceased emperor and his unnamed lover.” Yixing pronounces everything clearly, enunciating everything and he knows Yifan’s watching his mouth as each word comes out. “However, I was there to pick up something of mine.”

Yifan reaches into his pocket and draws out the necklace, the little jade rabbit dangling between them from Yifan’s clenched fist. It makes Yixing’s heart soften up a little, to see Yifan with the pendant, even if the circumstances were not the norm for them. They were not courting one another and Yixing had not taken the necklace from the corpse of a social “nobody”, it was more serious than that. Yixing had stolen from a ruler who was once revered in their country, which he was unlikely to get amnesty for.

The look Yifan gave him was tired a flat, “How did you know where to find it?”

“I already told you, it’s mine, of course I would know where to find it.”

“I can’t be yours, that tomb has never been broken into before, therefore it would have been impossible for you to plant this necklace and go back down to find it. We have officers check the entrances twice-daily and there was no damage to any of them earlier in the day.”

“I didn’t plant it there earlier but I’m telling the truth, it’s mine.” Yixing’s pitch raised a little and he cleared his throat once he finished, trying to dislodge the slight annoyance that had begun to build.

“Look,” Yifan levelled with him, “I don’t see how that’s possible and it’s a little incontestable given that you were caught. Own up and this can be done with.”

“I really am being honest! That necklace is mine!” _And yours_ , Yixing thought to himself.

“If you are going to continue to be this uncooperative then I’ll have you put back into your cell and we can clear this all up tomorrow.”

Yixing rubbed his face and groaned, “I can prove it, if you want.”

“And how will you do that?”

Yixing splayed his hands out in front of him on the table, the only tension coming from the wrap that went around his still bleeding fingers. He felt the cold wood on his skin before he spoke, “In the tomb, there’s a document, it says it’s mine.”

“What? You conveniently left something behind to say that it’s yours?” Yifan’s scepticism was not lost on Yixing and he shrugged.

“I promise you, there’s something there and it will show you that it’s mine.”

“I’m not going to risk sending my officers down into that crypt with you, especially since we don’t know how much of a threat you are, to try and find something we don’t know is really there.” His voice was solid and confident and Yifan’s reluctance to Yixing, as well-founded as it was, began to grate on Yixing. He wished, with all his chest, that Yifan would trust him as he had in all their previous lives. Yifan looked tired of Yixing’s words, “I won’t endanger my officers.”

“Firstly, have I been any kind of physical threat to any of you at any point? I have been fully cooperative - I didn’t try to escape when you caught me, I didn’t lash out as your officers ripped my pendant from my hand, I have answered all of your questions. Secondly, I don’t wish for you to send officers down into the tomb with me.”

Yifan’s eyebrows rose on his forehead, “You think I’ll let you go down on your own?”

“No, I expect _you_ to come with me.”

 

~

 

_2018._

Yifan drinks his coffee quietly like he always does, and Yixing draws him in a blank ink pen on a piece of the disposable kitchen towel they always kept on the breakfast bar. The lines bleed a little and it’s all rough and jagged around the edges. He’s managed to capture Yifan frowning into his mug and Yixing loves how needlessly serious Yifan looks whenever he looks at something, it’s been like that in all their lives.

“Did you pick up more eggs on your way home last night?” Yifan breaks the silence and Yixing looks up from his doodle.

“Yeah, I put them in the egg holders on the side.” Yixing points to the worktop, where they have a metal rack to keep eggs in. “You want me to cook for you?”

“No, coffee’s okay for breakfast today. Maybe for lunch, though?”

“Anything you want.” Yixing smiles at him and Yifan leans over to kiss him on the side of the mouth. “What kind of flavour?”

“Don’t mind, you can pick.” Yifan shrugs and stands up to pour himself another cup of coffee. “Are your parents still coming next weekend?”

“Yeah, they can’t wait to meet you.” Yixing takes Yifan’s mug when he comes back to the breakfast bar again, takes a swig before handing it back. He cringes and sucks in through his teeth, “How can you drink that stuff? It’s so bitter.”

“I don’t question your mango chip addiction,” Yifan snorts and Yixing pouts.

“Mango chips don’t have as many negative health side effects as that bitter sludge.”

“Too much of anything is a bad thing, coffee or mango chips.” Yifan’s eyes show delight and so does Yixing’s heart.

“I shall hold you to that, Yifan.”

“Even in our next life?” Yifan challenges and Yixing laughs at it.

“Especially in our next lives.”

 

~

 

_1905._

Yifan trailed after Yixing as they stepped down into the tomb, he put himself between Yixing and the exit, and Yixing’s wrists ache where he had been handcuffed. They went by the light of Yifan’s handheld lamp and Yixing wished he had use of his hands, especially since the gaps in a few of the inner entrances were small, even for Yixing. They made it through, though. They stood where their past selves laid as skeletons.

Yixing smiled at the weirdness of the situation, that he knew exactly what was happening but Yifan had no clue. He was still impatient and short with Yixing.

“Can we please get this document swiftly?” Yifan shone the light towards Yixing and he blinked a few times as he nodded.

“It’s under the bodies,” Yixing told Yifan and he grinned when Yifan grumbled. “If you look, there’s a ridge in the bottom, there should be a box cut-out somewhere along it.”

Yifan searched around the large, ornate box that kept the emperor and his male lover, and his eyes flicked up to Yixing for a moment before he disappeared on the other side. There were a few clunking movements, as Yifan fiddled around with some things and when he appeared again, he held a scroll in his hands.

 

~

 

_1743._

Yixing didn’t enjoy sitting for a portrait, particularly when he was dressed up so formally, but Yifan had said it was necessary for their future. They both knew Yifan was right, so Yixing sat there and stared at the man in front of him, who was sketching him and drafting him onto parchment. Yifan wasn’t there to watch the portrait get drawn up, he had to deal with matters on the kingdom and Yixing was left to act like a living prop for a painting.

It was a tedious process and one done in silence. The man drawing him couldn’t speak the language Yixing could, which made it hard for him to explain how uncomfortable he was and he kept staring frantically at the other concubine who had gone with him to keep him company.

“Keep your back straight, you’re slouching like a poor man,” she scolded him and he puffed out of his nose.

“I _am_ a poor man,” he grumbled and she laughed.

“Not anymore, you have the emperor falling at your feet,” was all she said and Yixing couldn’t even argue back. “You have everything you could ask for in the kingdom.”

In fact, he had Yifan wrapped around his finger to the point that when the court meetings were adjourned for the day, Yifan went straight to the room Yixing was in and made himself known immediately. He was the only person in the room who could crowd around Yixing and kiss him without the artist expressing his discontent, and Yixing was relieved to have had the short rest where he could slouch slightly and have Yifan greet him softly with his lips.

“I want to go for a walk, how much longer will this be?” Yifan whispered to him and Yixing couldn’t answer.

“You’ll have to ask the man drawing me, I don’t know how long I’ve been sat around here. It feels like years… And please tell him to hurry, I’m uncomfortable and hungry.” Yixing didn’t mind as Yifan skimmed his fingers through Yixing’s curly locks, showing a generous amount of tenderness. “If you want to go on your walk badly enough, you can just send him away and I will go without any kind of portrait for the rest of my time as your spouse.”

“You need at least one piece of proof that you exist, you know that. People need to know of this kingdom’s star.”

“I’m doing this for you.”

“And for all of our lives to come,” Yifan reminded him, tapping his chest where the leather tethered pendant sat on his chest. “Think about our futures together.”

 

~

 

_1905._

Yifan opened up the scroll, stood in front of the room’s exit with only the flickering flame of his torch to illuminate what he could see. Yixing already knew what was on the paper, however. He knew there was a description; one that stated there were two small black moles that sat just up in a dimpled right cheek; another of gently curling hair that went untamed; of a body where wounds often would not heal. The second page was the drawing, the only one ever visually articulated about the king’s male lover.

Even in the dim light, Yixing could see the way Yifan paled, how he fumbled unsurely with all of the parchment. One stated that the necklace, which wrapped around the emperor’s neck, was owned by both the main in the portrait and any future seeker with the same likeness as him.

It was stamped with the emperor’s personal seal, of which only one block was ever made, and Yixing could not bite his tongue.

“Do you see? The necklace is mine.” He stepped towards Yifan and it made Yifan startle where he was stood. “I’m the incarnation of the emperor’s lover.”

“I,” Yifan stumbled over his words and grabbed his lamp, “I… We should get back to the station.”

Yixing followed behind Yifan as they left the tomb and kept his eyes on the detective, who held tightly to the documents. He wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen from then on, especially since he wasn’t sure how much Yifan would believe when he looked at the papers again with his colleagues.

Waiting for their verdict, Yixing was put back into the cage they called a cell. There were bundles of other people in there, all of them there for crimes that they probably were guilty of, and Yixing kept out of their way. He simply wanted to hear from what was decided about his apparent crime.

They had a decree of an old emperor, a description that fit Yixing along with a drawing that was almost like a two-dimensional mirror image of Yixing himself. However, there was doubt within him. It planted a seed of anxiety in his stomach. It was worry that there was a chance that he would never be able to go back and find the pendant, meaning he wouldn’t be able to give it to Yifan whenever they fell in love with one another. That the tradition could have ended after so many hundreds of years. It pained his heart when he thought about it.

He couldn’t sleep because of those fears, and because of the throbbing in his hand as the blood still slowly stained the bandage around his wound more and more. He sat in the corner, with his legs tucked in and head bowed slightly, trying to keep to himself as best he could. For the first time in a long time, he felt scared for his future. It was usually so clear that he would meet Yifan and they would very quickly become happy together, grow to enjoy one another’s company, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Yifan gave him scathing looks whenever he passed by and Yixing simply could not bear being stared at in such a way by the man who had been branded as his soulmate thousands of years before.

 

~

 

_8458 B.C._

Yixing stalked the man through the trees, slate knife held in his right hand and his left tightly gripped his flint-tipped spear. He had never seen anyone like it before, tall and covered in animal skins he’d never encountered in his life. It was Yixing’s job to keep his clan safe from lone wanderers and those who tried to attack their camp. There was no wind to cover the way the tall man crashed through the forests.

Far more silently than the man he was hunting, Yixing moved between the trees and circled around him a few times.

Rather than feeling threatened, Yixing felt curious. He wanted to know about the hide on the man’s shoulders, the teeth that clinked on his clothes as he moved, and the unfamiliar clan tattoos on his face. Yixing wondered what it could all mean. Was the man a hunter? Was he a clan leader? Was he a mage? Yixing simply could not tell.

Much like his clan’s animal, and namesake, Yixing hopped through the trees like a rabbit until he settled within reaching distance of the man.

Using his spear, he pinned the man from his neck to Yixing’s upper body, pulling him down to Yixing’s height. The man gasped and his scream came out like a strangled cry, he spewed out words Yixing could not understand, which fed a shot of fear through his stomach.

When the man stopped struggling, Yixing assumed him to have fainted and was surprised to see that the man had willingly subdued to his capture. It was quiet as Yixing slowly let the man go, with no animals or birds rustling in the trees to keep them company. The man’s clunky strides meant he stumbled to look Yixing in the eyes and Yixing stepped back, weapons raised up in defence.

Instead of moving to attack, the man put his hand to his chest and said one word, _“Yifan.”_

Yixing tilted his head to the side in confusion.

 _“Yifan,”_ he repeated, moving his hand away from his chest to place it back down onto it. He did that again and again, saying _“Yifan,”_ over and over again.

He slowly began to direct his hand at Yixing each time he pronounced his word again. And it took a good few tries before Yixing worked out that the man was trying to tell Yixing his name - and ask for Yixing's in return.

“Yixing,” he finally replied, pointing towards himself with his knife. He then turned it towards the man and tried, _“Yifan?”_

The man nodded, “Yixing,” he mimicked, his finger cast to Yixing, then he flipped it around and told him, _“Yifan.”_

Yixing lowered his weapons slightly and he hoped _Yifan_ was not a threat.

 

~

 

_1905._

Yixing was woken by a hand on his shoulder, it shook him awake and caused him to jolt out of his exhausted slumber. He blinked a few times and saw Yifan crouched in front of him. It was a shock to see him, at first, but he was none too roughly pulled to his feet and yanked out of the cell.

It had been a few days since he had last seen Yifan and the cut on Yixing's hand was red, raw and strangely warm. He knew it wasn't a good sign. But, even if it hurt, Yixing didn't say a word about it as Yifan grabbed his fingers and pulled him into one of the interrogation rooms. He wanted to cooperate as best as he could, which meant him attempting to stumble towards the rickety chair he had been put in the first time he was there. Yifan didn't let him sit down, however. He kept him propped up.

“Don't make any noise,” Yifan whispered as he peered out of the door that was just brought to. “Now, you need to leave.”

Yixing wanted to make a snarky comment, to tell Yifan that the binds around his hands and being trapped in the cell weren't going to let him go too far.

“They don't believe the papers you gave me,” he was informed and Yixing's heart sunk down into the pits of his stomach. “They want to send you to the magistrate. But I... For some odd reason, I believe you. I believe all of this... That drawing and those scrolls, they were _real_ , something inside is telling me that.”

“What?” Yixing squinted, not quite believing what Yifan had said but buying it just enough to let hope ebb back into himself.

“I don't know. There's a part of me that believes you and it's as if I can picture you in the Forbidden City - even if I've never been there. It's so vivid, too. I keep having visions of someone that looks exactly like you sat in this seat, with a woman and an artist in the same room. I can't shake the feeling that you're telling the truth.”

“What does this mean?” Yixing licked his lips.

“That you need to leave, to get out of here before your case is taken forward.”

A debate sparked up in Yixing, he didn't know if he should take up Yifan's offer or leave it to rot, with the idea that he could possibly have some more time with Yifan before his case was transferred.

It took Yifan presenting the necklace to Yixing for him to make his decision.

 

~

 

_8459 B.C._

“Yifan!” Yixing shouted down the river in an attempt to warn him of the dangers of Yifan slipping in. Yifan loomed over the river bank, his spear in his hand, and Yixing feared the man would fall and drown. Especially since Yixing only ever went into the shallows to bathe with soapwort and ash. Yifan, though, didn't even flinch as Yixing continued to scream his name, his eyes were fixed on the water before he lunged forward and skewered something in the river.

Yixing gasped when Yifan brought out a fish, which Yixing assumed to be a salmon. He still ran to Yifan's side and wrapped his arms around him. “Danger,” Yixing scolded firmly, imitating falling in and drowning.

Yifan smiled down at him and pointed to the scaly hide that dangled from the head of his spear and directed it to the salmon. “ _Fish_.”

After as many moons as they had been together, Yixing had grown somewhat fluent in their rudimentary communication and he knew Yifan was trying to tell him that his spear was meant for fishing. Yixing frowned at the water, still. The river was unsafe, every local new that and often nomads fell into the rushing flow.

“Yifan, clan,” Yifan used the word Yixing had taught him to say clan, “ _Sea_ ,” he pointed down to the water, “ _Snake_.”

With his spear, Yifan drew a squiggle in the ground, hissing.

“Snake?” Yixing asked, poking his tongue out and moving it in the same motion he had seen snakes use when they scrawled through the camp.

“ _Sea Snake,”_ Yifan pointed to the water and to his drawing.

“River Snake?” Yixing asked and Yifan shook his head, having been taught Yixing's word for water.

_“Big river. Sea. Water.”_

Yixing didn't understand and Yifan shrugged with a grin as he conceded, _“Big River Snake.”_

It was after Yifan had cooked the salmon over the fire that he gave the bones to Yixing as a small gift, for Yixing to use for his bone readings - even if Yixing did prefer rabbit bones, given that they were his clan animal. He leant against Yifan just outside of their makeshift shelter and ate the pink meat quietly, and nerves ate at him. It was a full moon and in Yifan's last visit from his own clan, he had told Yixing that he wished for them to be partners, for them to be mates.

For Yixing, as a mage, that meant a rite, one which he wasn't quite familiar with. Mages didn't take mates most of the time, as they chose to devote their time to their craft and learning new ways of healing and prophesying. Yifan had brought him what he was supposed to from his home and it was all laid out on Yifan's hide satchel just off to the side.

There was more of the animal skin Yifan had on everything, the sign of his Water Snake origins, a lock he had cut out of his hair, and the teeth that had once clinked on his cuffs. The teeth of a creature Yifan had named a ‘ _Shark’ -_ Yixing didn't know what that could be, but Yifan told him it was the first creature he had ever killed, giving him the symbol of a hunter in his clan. It was all Yixing needed, along with a few drops of their blood.

It was Yifan who prompted him to begin and Yixing prepared himself as Yifan took a knife and cut a strand of Yixing's hair. Yixing cut both of their thumbs with his stone knife and they both drew a small crescent on the other's forehead in their blood whilst Yixing recited the lines he had rehearsed. They took the items from each other - Yifan burnt the hide of a rabbit, the bones of a white tiger and Yixing's curled hair strand. Yixing did the same with Yifan's objects. Yixing cut both of their palms and they poured the blood that came out into a small carved, wooden bowl. They both took sips from it as Yixing spoke more of his incantation.

They put the bowl into the fire next and watched as the flames flashed blues for a few moments.

“Forever,” Yixing iterated when the fire had died and he pressed the ash from it to the blood on Yifan's forehead.

Yifan kissed Yixing's temple as he did the same in return, _“Forever.”_

 

~

 

_1905._

“Take it and go,” Yifan commanded as they crept out of the cell area.

Yixing shook his head and faced Yifan fully, “You keep it. If they catch me, they'll take it away from us both.”

“But it's yours.”

“It is as much yours as it is mine,” Yixing muttered before he tipped onto his toes and kissed Yifan's cheek gently. He took Yifan's pause of shock to explain himself carefully. “Keep it with you, bury yourself with it when you die and I will find it when the time is right.”

Yifan's body was still stock still from Yixing's kiss as Yixing took off out of the station completely, walking through the night.

 

~

 

_2018._

Yixing hums along to music as he sorts the eggs out on the side, meaning to fry them and add them to some rice, along with some vegetables. Yifan’s cutting up peppers and the like, but only the ones Yifan enjoys eating. Yixing isn’t too fussed by anything until he accidentally burns his hand on the pan. It goes right across from the pad of his index finger, over his middle finger, and straight to his ring finger. The pain jolts memories right through his brain and he stumbles somewhat.

Yifan’s there to catch him, though. To make sure he’s okay.

It’s Yifan who takes over the cooking when Yixing’s stood at the sink, dousing his burns with cold water in hopes of taking the sting away and encouraging it not to scar. Still, Yifan fawns a little, ensuring that Yixing’s not bleeding, that no skin was broken.

And all Yixing can think about is how he had taken the necklace on Yifan’s old body, as he had done as Yixing had asked and been buried with it. Even if they weren't together in that lifetime, Yifan kept to his word and made it easier for them in their current ‘future.’ Yixing feels like crying, with his nose tingling and eyes stinging, when he remembers how Yifan hadn’t loved him in the lifetime before. Yixing had died a few months after they’d met in the tomb, too soon for them to build anything noteworthy in Yifan’s life. Yixing’s heart breaks all over again.

There’s a weight on Yixing’s shoulders that he’s suddenly aware of, which drives dread straight through his heart.

He always seems to die before Yifan, leaving his lover to roam the world on his own, and Yixing’s been wondering for the past few lives if that’s why Yifan never seems to recall their connection. Maybe he’s protecting himself from a pain that he knows is inevitable.

Still, that’s nothing for Yixing to think about when he feels hands envelop his under the water, doing everything to make Yixing feel better about his damaged hand.

“Don’t you worry about lunch, I’ll do it,” Yifan offers and Yixing tells him _okay_. “I’ll do everything.”

And Yixing knows Yifan means as once the food is finished, Yifan feeds Yixing with his chopsticks and spoon, just so Yixing doesn’t have to use his injured fingers. It makes Yixing preen and feel like he’s shining when Yifan takes care of him.

Simply due to the fact that Yifan spoils Yixing. He spoils him because he’s the one that sees the brightness of their futures, not weighed down by the unresolved elements of their past.

 


End file.
